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I wanted to get the notebooks from Miller Pads and Paper for my children to do their copywork in, but now I am concerned about my left-handed son. Will he have trouble writing in a regular notebook that has the spiral on the side?

Anyone experienced out there with left-handed children to give me some advice???

Thanks!

Terri

i am curious about this myself. i have another year to go before copywork. but i am always on the look out for differences for a left-handed child. did you know it is hard for a lefty to sift flour because of the side the handle is on? these little things i didn't realize til i am living with a lefty. i hope someone posts who has had experience in this area.

Jenn D

My ds (5th grade) just told me that they bother his hand (the spirals press on it) when he is trying to write I usually give him loose leaf paper for assignments, but this year having to have different notebooks for CTC is going to be challenging for him. I am going to try a 1 subject wireless notebook and see how he does with that. Also, I think the composition notebooks were bothersome as well.
We are going to use index cards for the common place book in CTC and put them on rings. I am also thinking of printing off a bunch of science notebooking pages for him and then comb binding them as he is finished with one. That way he has loose paper to work with but we'll have a neat book at the end I'll keep all of his papers in a binder until I am ready to bind them.

I asked my left handed 11yo dd and she said it doesn't bother her hand...so it may all depend on the child. I was showing her the My Picture Story book when I asked her. I would just say use the left hand side of the notebook, but unforunately the Picture Story book is only one sided. Not sure if this helps or not.

I'm a lefty. They always bothered me in school. I still prefer the ones with the spiral at the top instead of on the side.

8smiths wrote:No lefties at our house, but my cousin is and we have had this conversation. She has always (still as an adult) used spiral notebooks where the spiral is on the top instead of the side. She gets hers from Office Max.

Thank you for mentioning this! We are using Growing with Grammar this year and the spiral is on the top of those workbooks but I didnt know they sold those!! Will be heading out to Officemax soon!

I am a lefty! And honestly, even though the spiral on the left side is a bit annoying, I've gotten used to it. When we were in school, they didn't make them any other way so I just had to go with it. I think the suggestions about top spirals or loose leaf paper are great suggestions!

Some of the Miller pads at the younger ages, up to 2nd grade have the spiral on the long side (Horizontal). After that they have them vertical and that would cause there hand to be on the spiral.
You could always print of sheets like that on Donnayoung's website and put them in a 3 ring binder after your child is done. They are free.
http://www.donnayoung.org/penmanship/bl ... -paper.htm

Hope this helps.

I purchased great top-spiraled 1/2 lines with top 1/2 blank for drawing at Miller Pad and Paper! They have all sizes too! Since we are doing Preparing we added one of these smaller notebooks for my kiddos Bible time.

P.S. I'm a lefty too & I love top spiraled notebooks!

My dd is a leftie also, she has never complained about the spirals. I just make sure to remind her to slant her book. Also, you could just have your son write on the back part of the page. I guess all of us right handed people experienced this when we wrote on the back side of the spiral page. Weird.

Blessings,

Ana Dawson

Good question - one other idea would be to use a composition book. We don't have lefties, but we use the composition books anyway with our oldest because he likes them. They're available at Walmart and cost just a tad more than spiral notebooks.

In Christ,
Julie

Out of 7 children, we have 3 lefties. Two are grown, and have never complained about spiral notebooks....but certainly it is something to think about. My youngest ds is 5 and will be doing more handwriting this year. Currently I just print out pages for him to work on, but if the spiral on a notebook bothered him, I would suggest he write on the left side vs the right side. For a journal, I made my own sheets lined at the bottom and blank at the top (for a drawing) and put them in a three-prong folder. He has never complained about it, and we've done this for two years now.

My suggestion would be to ask your child to brainstorm ideas on ways he might be more comfortable.